110 PROF. MIVART ON THE FINS OF ELASMOBRANCHS. I Feb. 5, 



was taken a puppy on the slopes of Fujisan last year. I bought him 

 for $ 1 1 in November last. He has learnt a sort of bark from the other 

 dogs which he did not know when I first had him ; he comes out 

 sometimes with a regular wolf's howl, but not often. In his muzzle 

 he resembles more the mainland Wolf, the northern Wolf being, like 

 the Siberian one, very long in the nose, and those on the mainland 

 (C. hodophylax) much shorter. My first impression was that this dog 

 was a cross between a wolf and the hunter's dog ; but both its parents 

 then would have had very large round feet, which this has not. A 

 friend told me that it is very like the Indian Dhole. In winter it has 

 a thick coat ; but in summer all the long thin hair comes out, and it 

 then has only its coarse wiry hair on. It is a much scarcer animal 

 than the Wolf on the mainland, which latter is rather common in the 

 mountains, anywhere where the sheep-faced Antelope is found." 



"Yokohama, Nov. 17th, 1877. 



" I am trying to get a Southern Wolf ( Canis hodophylax) to 

 send as a present to the Society. I have sent the Wild Dog in 

 the ' Loudoun Castle,' and should like to hear what they say about 

 him. He is a complete puzzle to me. At one time I would look at 

 him and think that he was only an abnormal form of the common 

 Dog, run wild, and at other times feel as perfectly convinced that 

 he had nothing in common with it. He has very narrow feet, clean 

 limbs, very long canines, coarse hair in summer and plenty of long 

 thin hair in the winter, eyes and ears like a Wolf. I heard of 

 the animal wherever I went from the hunters, but only succeeded in 

 getting this one, as they say it is very difficult to catch, more so than 

 the Wolf, the capture of which is no easy task, as I know, as I have 

 been in places where they were plentiful, but only saw one and 

 poisoned another, although I have heard half a dozen at a time 

 howling quite close to me in the forests of Yamato. 



" My Wild Dog differs considerably from C. lupus, which is found 

 in Yesso, and C. hodophylax, which is confined to the Main Island, 

 although in his shorter muzzle he resembles the latter. When we 

 know more about the cave and other recent bone-deposits of Japan, 

 we shall be able to speak more definitely about him." 



2. A young Penguin of the genus Spheniscus, purchased January 

 24th. This bird is said to have been obtained in Chili, and is 

 probably the young of Spheniscus humboldti. It is very tame, and 

 has been for the present placed in a compartment of the Fish-house, 

 where it seems likely to do well. 



Prof. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., read a Memoir entitled, " Notes 

 on the Fins of Elasmobranchs, with Considerations on the Nature 

 and Homologies of Vertebrate Limbs," of which the following is an 

 abstract : — 



In this paper I describe (from dissections made for the purpose) 

 the skeleton of the paired and azygos fins, especially the dorsal fins, 

 of Zygcena malleus, Mustelus antarctiais, Notidanus cinereus, Scyl- 



